{"id":33188,"date":"2021-04-17T14:29:11","date_gmt":"2021-04-17T10:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/?p=33188"},"modified":"2021-04-17T14:29:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-17T10:29:12","slug":"dha-expands-eligibility-criteria-for-covid-19-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/2021\/04\/17\/dha-expands-eligibility-criteria-for-covid-19-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"DHA expands eligibility criteria for COVID-19 vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) announced that as\npart of the expansion of the eligibility criteria for COVID-19 vaccination, women\nwho are breastfeeding as well as those who are planning to conceive can take\nthe mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech).<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore,\npatients who had COVID-19 no longer need to wait for three months to get the\nvaccine. They can take it on completion of their isolation, provided the\ninfection was mild or non-symptomatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Farida Al Khaja, CEO of DHA\u2019s Clinical\nSupport Services and Nursing Sector and Chairperson of the COVID-19 Vaccination\nSteering Committee said the decision taken by the COVID-19 scientific committee\nafter due consideration is aligned with international\nguidelines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAny\npatient who\nhad an\nactive COVID-19 infection must wait until the completion of the isolation\nperiod to be vaccinated. If the infection was moderate or severe and required\nhospitalisation, the timeframe for vaccination after infection will depend on\nthe decision of the medical team that treated the patient. However, all mild cases or cases without symptoms can take the vaccine after completing\nthe isolation period,\u201d said Al Khaja. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently, the DHA also reduced the minimum age for some of the available\nvaccines to 16 years instead of 18 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The DHA has now extended eligibility for the Pfizer-BioNTech\nvaccine, an mRNA vaccine, to women who are breastfeeding or planning to conceive,\nin line with the latest international studies and guidelines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Muna Tahlak, CEO of Latifa Hospital for Women and Children, said:\n\u201cClinical studies show that the mRNA vaccine is safe for women who are\nbreastfeeding or planning to conceive unless the patient has certain medical\ncontraindications to vaccines or any vaccine component. Mothers who are\nbreastfeeding can now take an mRNA vaccine as per the latest DHA\nvaccine guidelines. There is no need to stop breastfeeding before or after vaccination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is important\nto understand that COVID-19 vaccines are able to create an immune response\nwithout causing the illness and that they do not contain a live virus, said Dr.\nTahlak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers at Massachusetts\nGeneral Hospital (MGH), Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital and the Ragon Institute of\nMGH, MIT and Harvard have found that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are highly\neffective in producing antibodies against the COVID-19 virus in pregnant and\nlactating women. The study also demonstrated that vaccines provide protective\nimmunity to newborns through breast milk and the placenta. The study was\npublished in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Tahlak further said mRNA vaccination is also recommended for women who are actively trying to conceive or\ncontemplating pregnancy. \u201cIt is not necessary to delay planning a pregnancy until\nafter completing both doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Moreover, a routine\npregnancy test is not recommended prior to receiving the vaccine.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Al Khaja added that DHA has 11 dedicated vaccination centres in Dubai and two\nmobile clinics for providing home-vaccination for the elderly and those with\nchronic diseases. During Ramadan, the centres provide vaccination from 9.00 am\nto 4.00 pm and from 9.00 pm to midnight Sunday to Thursday. On Friday and\nSaturday, the centres will provide vaccinations from 9.00 pm to midnight only.\nThe centres will only be open during the morning slot from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm\nduring the last ten days of the Holy Month. The vaccination centres will be\nclosed on 7 and 8 May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe\nwellbeing and safety of our community is our highest priority.<strong> <\/strong>As part of ensuring community members have convenient access to\nvaccination, we are providing safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in locations\nacross Dubai. We are also providing a mobile vaccination option for the elderly\nand those with chronic diseases. Our aim is to vaccinate 100 per cent of the\neligible adult population in Dubai by the end of 2021. The latest expansion in eligibility\ncriteria follows a study conducted by the scientific committee on the safety\nand effectiveness of the vaccine for these groups,\u201d Dr Al Khaja said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) announced that as part of the expansion of the eligibility criteria for COVID-19 vaccination, women who are breastfeeding as well as those who are planning to conceive can take the mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech). Furthermore, patients who had COVID-19 no longer need to wait for three months to get the vaccine. &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-health","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33191,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33188\/revisions\/33191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}